


The Rags of Time: Epilogue

by xpityx



Series: The Rags of Time [4]
Category: Black Sails
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-04
Updated: 2018-06-04
Packaged: 2019-05-18 04:29:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14845727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xpityx/pseuds/xpityx
Summary: Nassau, two months laterIt was cool inside the tavern after the heat of the day, and it took Charles a second for his eyes to adjust to the dim interior.





	The Rags of Time: Epilogue

**Author's Note:**

> Done! Thank you for coming on this ride with me, I now return to my sodding Supernatural Big Bang and the six other Black Sails fics I’ve started (including a coda to this…)

 

_Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,_

_Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time._

‘The Sun Rising’ [excerpt], John Donne

 

~~~~~~~

 

_Nassau, two months later_

 

It was cool inside the tavern after the heat of the day, and it took Charles a second for his eyes to adjust to the dim interior.

 

“I’ll go to the bar for us,” Anne said as Charles sat down opposite Jack, who had been waiting long enough to have his own drink already.

 

Jack instantly started to ruminate aloud on the state of his current crew, but Charles was watching Thomas and James who were speaking with Max on the stairs about something or the other. James had his hand on Thomas’ back and seemed to be looking more at him that at Max.

 

“I officiated their marriage,” he said, interrupting Jack’s stream of consciousness.  

 

Jack, who only expected Charles to listen some of the time, turned to look at the couple and replied, mildly, “Well, that must have been a short ceremony.”

 

Charles glared but Jack looked unrepentant.

 

“An English Lord and a Pirate married by the dread Captain Charles Vane. What a funny world we live in, I cannot imagine how we will be recorded in history.... Or even if we will be,” he added, more to himself.

 

There was a pause whilst Jack drank, then Charles began to speak.

 

“Over a thousand years ago the Roman Empire covered most of the earth, and now it is no more. In another thousand years, who knows what the world will look like.” Jack had abandoned his drink to look at his friend. Charles, for his part, was still watching Thomas and James talk to Max. “But there will be no British Empire, no Spain, no France - it will all be the same dust as what’s beneath our feet. And there will be people who don’t hold with those who rule them, and there will be places like this, safe havens for those who refuse to bend the knee. Maybe they’ll call themselves reformers or radicals or some new word, but have no doubt: they will be Pirates.”

 

Jack looked at him in astonishment for a second before toasting him with what was left of his drink. Anne came back with their ale then, and Thomas and James finished their business with Max and stepped out of the tavern, into the light.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the anarchists, the activists, those who question, those who fight. This is for those who civilization excludes, by default or design. This is for those who don’t bend the knee.


End file.
